F2F_Issue 40_FINAL (TS)_Layout 1 20/07/2012 12:11 Page 1 Face to Face AUTUMN/WINTER 2012
The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart My Favourite Portrait by Dame Anne Owers DBE Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair F2F_Issue 40_FINAL (TS)_Layout 1 20/07/2012 12:11 Page 2
COVER AND BELOW Henry, Prince of Wales by Robert Peake, c.1610
This portrait will feature in the exhibition The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart from 18 October 2012 until 13 January 2013 in the Wolfson Gallery
Face to Face Issue 40 Deputy Director & Director of Communications and Development Pim Baxter Communications Officer Helen Corcoran Editor Elisabeth Ingles Designer Annabel Dalziel
All images National Portrait Gallery, London and © National Portrait Gallery, London, unless stated www.npg.org.uk Recorded Information Line 020 7312 2463 F2F_Issue 40_FINAL (TS)_Layout 1 20/07/2012 12:11 Page 3
FROM THE DIRECTOR
THIS OCTOBER the Gallery presents The Lost cinema photographer Fred Daniels, who Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart, photographed such Hollywood luminaries as the first exhibition to explore the life and Anna May Wong, Gilda Gray and Sir Laurence legacy of Henry, Prince of Wales (1594–1612). Olivier, and Ruth Brimacombe, Assistant Curator Catharine MacLeod introduces this Curator, writes about Victorian Masquerade, fascinating exhibition, which focuses on a a small display of works from the Collection remarkable period in British history dominated which illustrate the passion for fancy dress by a prince whose death at a young age indulged by royalty, the aristocracy and artists precipitated widespread national grief, and in the nineteenth century. led to the accession to the throne of his younger brother, King Charles I, whose reign Clare Barlow, Assistant Curator, explores ended with the Civil War. some of the Gallery’s hidden gems, including portraits by Thomas Gainsborough and The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Angelica Kauffmann, on show as part of The 2012 opens at the Gallery in November; Tim Art of Drawing: Portraits from the Collection, Eyles, Managing Partner, Taylor Wessing LLP, 1670–1780, and in Henry and Catherine reflects on past competitions and looks Reunited Tarnya Cooper, Chief Curator, forward to this year’s exhibition. recounts her experience of rediscovering an important lost portrait of Henry VIII’s first This season includes a variety of free displays wife Catherine of Aragon. throughout the Gallery. Painter Humphrey Ocean previews A handbook of modern life, Lastly, we report on the Gallery’s London 2012 a selection of his recent portraits, and Clare Marathon fundraising success in aid of the Freestone, Associate Curator of Photographs, latest Hospital Schools project; Chair of the looks at Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair, Independent Police Complaints Commission a display of press photographs and magazine Dame Anne Owers DBE writes about her covers produced during Marilyn’s time in the favourite portrait, and you can read about the UK filming The Prince and the Showgirl. Helen importance of legacies in securing works for Trompeteler, Assistant Curator of Photographs, the Collection. considers the work of early twentieth-century
Sandy Nairne DIRECTOR
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MY FAVOURITE PORTRAIT LEFT AND BELOW Dame Anne Owers DBE by Dame Anne Owers DBE by Diarmuid Kelley, 2010 Campaigner, administrator and policy Thomas Cromwell, adviser; former HM Chief Inspector of Earl of Essex Prisons; Chair of the Independent Police after Hans Holbein the Younger (1533–1534), early 17th century Complaints Commission On display in Room 1
I’D CHOOSE THOMAS CROMWELL. It’s not the of an embryonic Civil Service. Whether or not best portrait in the Gallery’s Collection, or even you agreed with Elton – and he rarely agreed the best version of this particular portrait (the with anyone else – was not the point. This Holbein original is in the Frick Collection in New was not history as pageant, but history as the York, where he casts a rather baleful eye across gathering, testing and analysing of fragments a fireplace at the more reflective Sir Thomas of evidence to discern the underlying pattern More), but it fascinated me long before Hilary and narrative, looking under the surface and Mantel re-imagined his story in Wolf Hall. beyond the exterior. That discipline served me well as HM Chief Inspector of Prisons: seeing I was one of very few History undergraduates through wet paint, hastily assembled new in my year not to have overdosed on the policies and outward civilities, gathering Tudors at school. So I came fresh to this information, watching and listening to what fascinating period and the insights of some is and isn’t done and said, in order to create outstanding lecturers and teachers, including a portrait of a total institution. Geoffrey Elton (uncle of the now more famous Ben), who credited Cromwell with the creation And that is another reason I like this portrait, and many other Holbeins. He gets under Cromwell’s skin. It isn’t the symbols of his office in front of him that draw you in. It is his eyes. They are the eyes of a consummate politician and tactician: watchful, shrewd, authoritative. This is not a vain man, but a man who is confidently in control – for the present. For, like all politicians, Cromwell’s career ended in failure, which meant not a best-selling book of memoirs, but the execution block. But his portrait captures the moment: the power before the fall.
Dame Anne Owers DBE had a long career in the non- governmental sector, focusing on asylum, race, human rights and criminal justice. From 2001 to 2010 she was HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales. She is a Trustee of the Koestler Trust, promoting art by offenders. In April 2012, she became Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission.
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A HANDBOOK OF MODERN LIFE Humphrey Ocean: BELOW FROM LEFT A handbook of modern Gabor, 2009 by Humphrey Ocean life Phoebe, 2011 Artist from 23 November 2012 by Humphrey Ocean Rooms 41 and 41a © Humphrey Ocean Admission free
WHATEVER ANYONE SAYS, there is a difference a painting is what I have been doing with between a Rothko and a portrait, how we people I know. They allow me to sit too close think and feel about them. A different part and stare, itself an uneasy thing to do. It has of our brain and body reacts. Coming across stretched me too, partly because for the first a portrait of someone you know, or know of, time I really do not know what I am doing, is also not quite the same as looking at Van and I am particularly excited about showing Gogh’s picture of Joseph Roulin. There we them here. I sometimes wonder. One reason notice Vincent, more than the postman. I became an artist is that I like being in my You could say portraying a person is the room and closing my door. This is what trickiest subject because we know too much. happens when I open the door. In real life a simple thing like catching someone’s eye can change our lives in a second. Stretching this moment out for just as long as it takes to set it down and make
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THE LOST PRINCE: THE LIFE AND TOP BOTTOM Henry, Prince of Wales Henry, Prince of Wales DEATH OF HENRY STUART when an infant and Robert Devereux, by Catharine MacLeod by an unknown artist, 1596 3rd Earl of Essex Private Collection by Robert Peake, c.1605 Curator of Seventeenth-Century Portraits The Royal Collection. Photo: Supplied by Royal Collection Trust/ © HM Queen Elizabeth II 2012
ON 7 DECEMBER 1612 the funeral procession of an eighteen-year-old royal prince wound its way from St James’s Palace to Westminster Abbey. Over 2,000 official mourners followed the hearse, 400 more than had followed that of Queen Elizabeth I nine years earlier. An eye-witness described the people lining the streets as: ‘An innumerable multitude of all sorts of ages and degrees of men, women and children … some weeping, crying, howling, wringing of their hands, others halfe dead, sounding, sighing inwardly, others holding up their hands, passionately bewayling so great a losse, with Rivers, nay with an Ocean of teares.’ Parallel funerals were held simultaneously in Bristol, Oxford and Cambridge.
Today Henry, Prince of Wales is all but forgotten. If he had lived, he would have been crowned King Henry IX of England and I of Scotland on the death of his father; his brother Charles would not have succeeded to the throne as Charles I, and the course of history would have been different. This exhibition reconsiders Prince Henry’s life and achievements, seeking to establish just what it was about him that made his loss seem so catastrophic not only to his family and his followers, but to the whole country and indeed all of Britain’s allies in Europe.
Henry was born in 1594, the eldest son of James VI of Scotland and Anne of Denmark. As he was heir to the throne of Scotland his birth was of great significance, and after James’s accession to the English throne in
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The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart BELOW from 18 October 2012 until 13 January 2013 Henry, Prince of Wales Wolfson Gallery on horseback Admission £13 (with Gift Aid) by Robert Peake, c.1606–8 Concessions £12/£11 (with Gift Aid) From The Collection at Parham House, Pulborough, West Sussex. Free for Gallery Supporters Photo: © Michael Donne Supported by The Weiss Gallery and individual exhibition supporters
1603 Henry became the first male heir composed of portraits. It included works apparent to the English throne for over sixty by artists of earlier generations, such as years. He was increasingly the focus of interest Hans Holbein, and fashionable contemporary and expectation both in Britain and abroad. paintings. From Florence Henry acquired a set Established in his own household, he was of small bronze sculptures after Giambologna: educated by a series of tutors and shaped by the first recorded group of Renaissance a variety of advisers. Although a somewhat bronzes in England. In addition, a huge library reluctant scholar, Henry thoroughly enjoyed of several thousand volumes was put together the physical, particularly the military, aspects for the Prince, ranging from practical of his training, and was the recipient of educational works to the most exquisitely immensely expensive gifts of beautifully decorated and bound manuscripts. decorated tournament armour. Henry’s interests were not limited to the An image was carefully developed for Henry arts; he was also actively engaged with as an ideal militant prince, an amalgam of contemporary scientific developments, and Arthurian, chivalric knight and Roman military took a particular interest in naval affairs. The hero: the future champion of Protestant shipbuilder Phineas Pett built for him the Europe. A new kind of royal portraiture was biggest, most magnificent ship in the navy, developed for him by the court artist Robert Peake, depicting the Prince in novel, dynamic compositions, and his image was further developed in the roles he took in the court festivals and masques. Masques were elaborate theatrical entertainments at court in which music, dance, and poetry – set within an allegorical narrative – were performed by magnificently costumed participants, often including members of the royal family. Lavish and costly, they were designed and written by some of the greatest artists and writers of the day, notably Inigo Jones and Ben Jonson.
In emulation of the great European princely collectors, Henry began to assemble an extraordinary collection of paintings, one of the earliest in Britain not predominantly
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BELOW RIGHT Elizabeth, Lady Vaux Costume Design for by Hans Holbein the Henry, Prince of Wales as Younger, c.1536 Oberon, The Faery Prince The Royal Collection. by Inigo Jones, 1610 Photo: Supplied by Royal Collection The Trustees of the Chatsworth Trust/© HM Queen Elizabeth II Settlement. Photo: © Devonshire 2012 Collection, Chatsworth. Reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees
the Prince Royal. The Prince also gave his name to some of the earliest settlements in Virginia, and was the patron of an expedition in search of the Northwest Passage to China. Knowing of his interest in ships and shipping, Sir Walter Ralegh, incarcerated in the Tower, wrote a treatise on this subject, among other works for the Prince.
When Henry was struck by his fatal illness, Frederick, Elector Palatine. They waited and now believed to have been typhoid fever, watched as the doctors gathered around representatives from all over the Protestant the Prince’s bedside, anxiously debated his world were assembled in London to celebrate treatment, and ministered to him in – by the marriage of his sister Elizabeth to today’s standards – ever more outlandish
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BELOW The Hearse of Henry, Prince of Wales by William Hole, 1612 The British Museum. Photo: © The Trustees of the British Museum
ways. It was all to no avail; after two weeks’ illness, Henry, Prince of Wales died. The family’s grief was profound. James was described some months later as breaking off in the middle of important diplomatic exchanges to call out, ‘Henry is dead! Henry is dead!’ The wider public’s feeling of loss was expressed not just at the funeral but also through an unprecedented outpouring of mourning poetry and music. Approximately fifty volumes of poetry were published within the first year or two of his death.
During his short life, Henry was the focus of great and diverse hopes for the future. What he would have become had he lived longer is a tantalising but unanswerable question. Would his personal charisma and political acumen have held the country together so that the Civil War that erupted under his brother Charles I would have been avoided? Or would his militaristic leanings have led Britain into war on the continent? Would his artistic patronage have stimulated an even greater flowering of the arts and architecture than took place at Charles I’s court, or would his scientific interests have enabled new discoveries and developments in that area? Of course we cannot know. The Lost Prince: The Life and But we can recognise that the cultural Death of Henry Stuart developments – in the widest sense – that By Catharine MacLeod, Malcolm took place around this most remarkable Smuts and Timothy Wilks prince during his short life provided the £30 (hardback) foundations of the position Britain built for itself on the world stage during the rest of Available from Gallery Shops and online at www.npg.org.uk/shop the seventeenth century. Published October 2012
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MARILYN MONROE: BELOW Marilyn Monroe A BRITISH LOVE AFFAIR by André de Dienes, Picture by Clare Freestone Post, 13 December 1947 © OneWest Media. Cover Associate Curator of Photographs © André de Dienes/Getty Images. Courtesy of Moviepearles Collection
ON 14 JULY 1956 Marilyn Monroe and the playwright Arthur Miller, whom she had just married, arrived in Britain. America’s most celebrated actress was here to appear in The Prince and The Showgirl, based on a play by Terence Rattigan; she was starring opposite Sir Laurence Olivier, who was also to direct. As the recent film My Week With Marilyn revealed, the production at Pinewood was fraught with problems. However, Olivier later recalled, ‘I was as good as I could be, and Marilyn! Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all. So. What do you know?’
Marilyn’s four-month stay in Britain generated huge press interest. Photojournalist Larry Burrows, working for Life magazine, was one of many who recorded the press launch at the Savoy Hotel. Further photographs show Monroe and Miller astride bicycles given to them by the press, and posing outside Parkside House with Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh. Baron’s (Sterling Henry Nahum’s) photographs of a natural and smiling Monroe were taken Jack Cardiff, master of Technicolor and the during a Hollywood photographic assignment cinematographer on the film, had a private in 1954: arriving late, Monroe was portrayed in sitting with Monroe for which she appeared the fading Californian sunlight in the garden of nine hours late. Monroe inscribed one of the Baron’s friend Harry Crocker. Baron recalled, dreamy images created with a wind machine ‘Marilyn, I felt, was one of the most appealing and vaseline over the lens, ‘Dearest Jack, if people I had ever met.’ The display will also only I could be the way you created me.’ feature a favourite portrait of Monroe’s taken by Cecil Beaton in the Ambassador Hotel in Earlier in the 1950s British photographers had New York on 22 February 1956. contributed to the vast Monroe iconography. Antony Beauchamp’s daring poses of Monroe A selection of British magazine covers plot wearing a ‘cheesecake girl’ yellow bikini, taken Monroe’s changing image and progressing in 1951, graced several magazine covers. movie career. In December 1947 the fresh-
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Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair BELOWLEFTFROMTOP BELOW from 29 September 2012 until 24 March 2013 Marilyn Monroe Marilyn Monroe and Room 33 by Anthony Beauchamp, Laurence Olivier Admission free Pageant, November 1952 Poster for The Prince and Courtesy of Moviepearles Collection the Showgirl, 1957 Courtesy of Lloyd Ibert Collection Marilyn Monroe postcard book Marilyn Monroe 20 postcards £6.99 by Ernest Bachrach, Available from Gallery Shops Picturegoer, 9 May 1953 Courtesy of Moviepearles Collection
By 1953 the star of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, featured on the cover of Picturegoer, photographed by Hollywood’s star photographer Ernest Bachrach, is the more familiar figure: blonde, barely dressed and seductive. Bruno Bernard’s colourful River of No Return publicity shot appeared on Photoplay in December 1954, whilst Milton Greene (who formed Marilyn Monroe Productions) captured the star more informally for Picture Post in 1956. A photograph at the time of Monroe’s last completed film, The Misfits, scripted by Arthur Miller, was shown on the cover of Today magazine in February 1956.
A poignant conclusion to the display is the cover of Town magazine published three months after Monroe’s death fifty years ago. It features an image from the last official shoot with Monroe by George Barris. British Pop artist faced cover girl of Picture Post was Norma Pauline Boty used the image in a recently Jeane Baker, photographed by Hungarian-born rediscovered painting, Colour Her Gone (1962, photojournalist André de Dienes, who thought Mayor Gallery), a homage to Monroe as an her ‘like an angel’. everlasting icon of the twentieth century.
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TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC Taylor Wessing BELOW LEFT Photographic Portrait Harriet and Gentleman PORTRAIT PRIZE Prize 2012 Jack by Tim Eyles from 8 November 2012 First Prize Winner, Taylor Managing Partner, Taylor Wessing LLP until 17 February 2013 Wessing Photographic Porter Gallery Portrait Prize 2011 Admission £2 by Jooney Woodward, 2010 Free for Gallery Supporters © Jooney Woodward
THE TAYLOR WESSING PHOTOGRAPHIC Different themes and new ideas always emerge, PORTRAIT PRIZE is no stranger to controversy. and this reflects my experience that all art Every year, the thousands of entries submitted evolves over time. address the difficulties and the celebrations experienced by individuals around the world. The Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize They offer insight, provoke questions and judging process itself is hugely stimulating. stimulate debate; indeed their art often brings Each of the judges brings their own perspective uncomfortable issues to the surface. And that’s to the table, which inevitably leads to lively what I love about it: the artists always give us debate. Sandy Nairne is a wonderful chair in pause for reflection. these situations, acting as a mediator and ensuring that each and every image receives I personally find photography a very powerful due consideration. The portraits under discussion medium, thanks to its ability to capture the are revisited time and again. Such meticulous varying elements of the human spirit. I review can often lead to an unforeseen result, therefore feel a real sense of excitement when with first reactions shifting as photographs are I view new submissions to each year’s Prize. re-examined. It’s an important element of the judging process when one acknowledges that those selected need to stand up to prolonged scrutiny.
The images that have really stood out for me in previous exhibitions include the winners, but often I find other submissions equally moving or powerful: the quality and variety of the submissions are incredibly impressive.
As I write this I am already filled with anticipation in thinking about what will emerge from this year’s entries. I have no doubt that there will be portraits that are enigmatic, tender, shocking, funny and simply beautiful. There will be something to inspire everyone and I hope each visitor takes as much pleasure in them as I do.
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FRED DANIELS: Fred Daniels: BELOW Cinema Portraits Anna May Wong (detail) CINEMA PORTRAITS from 28 September 2012 by Fred Daniels, 1929 by Helen Trompeteler until 24 March 2013 © Estate of Fred Daniels Assistant Curator of Photographs Bookshop Gallery Admission free
FRED DANIELS (1892–1959) came to prominence in the 1920s, and was recruited by the German-born director E.A. Dupont in 1929 to take stills and publicity portraits for the classic silent film Piccadilly, starring Anna May Wong and the American actress Gilda Gray. Daniels also photographed actress Joan Barry in connection with Dupont’s film Atlantic (1929), based upon the sinking of the Titanic.
Anna May Wong in Piccadilly, Elisabeth Bergner in Escape Me Never, and Anna Neagle looking at her husband and director Herbert Wilcox on the set of Victoria the Great are three of the striking images that form this first Gallery tribute to the British photographer.
In the early 1930s, Daniels photographed H.B. Warner on location for Sorrell and Son (1933), and in 1935 first worked for Herbert Wilcox on including A Matter of Life and Death (1946) Peg of Old Drury and later Victoria the Great and Black Narcissus (1947). (1937). In 1939 he photographed Arsenal and England captain Eddie Hapgood in Thorold This display coincides with the publication of Dickinson’s The Arsenal Stadium Mystery The Archers: Powell & Pressburger Portraits/ (1939). Around this time, Daniels established Portrety Fred Daniels. Nigel Arthur, BFI Stills his own studio at 17 Coventry Street, Piccadilly. Curator, was awarded a bursary by the Understanding British Portraits network in In 1941, Daniels met film-makers Michael 2011 to research the life and work of Fred Powell and Emeric Pressburger, photographing Daniels. We are grateful to him and Ewa Sir Laurence Olivier and Leslie Howard, the Reeves for collaborating with the Gallery on stars of their Academy Award-winning wartime this display. drama The 49th Parallel. The film’s success led Powell and Pressburger to establish their own The Archers: Powell & Pressburger Portraits/Portrety Fred Daniels by Nigel Arthur and Ewa Reeves, price production company, The Archers. Daniels £19.99 (paperback). Available from Gallery Shops and worked on many of The Archers’ films, online at www.npg.org.uk/shop.
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VICTORIAN MASQUERADE Victorian Masquerade BELOW LEFT from 22 October 2012 Walter Crane as Cimabue by Ruth Brimacombe until 2 June 2013 by Sir Emery Walker, c.1897 Assistant Curator Room 24 case display Admission free
THE VICTORIAN ENTHUSIASM for masquerade with the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) is an intriguing, but little documented, aspect and his wife, Princess Alexandra, hosting the of the nineteenth century. It was a Marlborough House Ball of 1874. They also continuation of a form of entertainment attended the splendid Devonshire House Ball, popular in the preceding century, and several held in celebration of Queen Victoria’s elaborate costumed balls would be staged Diamond Jubilee in 1897. over the course of Queen Victoria’s reign – beginning with the famous Eglinton Associated with the idea of carnival and the Tournament of 1839, complete with a licence to frolic, masquerade is defined both recreation of a medieval joust. The newly as an event, traditionally a masked ball, and wedded Queen and her consort Prince Albert as an assumption of a false appearance for would themselves host a series of fancy dress the purposes of disguise or amusement. This balls in 1842, 1845, and 1851. The younger display focuses on two artistic consequences generation of royals maintained the tradition, of the Victorians’ liking for fancy dress: firstly the phenomenon of the ‘fancy portrait’, and secondly the Victorian artist’s personal participation in this kind of portraiture. The term ‘fancy portrait’ refers to a work that depicts the sitter in period dress inspired either by historical precedents or by a costume worn on a particular occasion. As this display demonstrates, like their eighteenth-century forebears, the royal family and aristocracy enjoyed being portrayed in the costume of an earlier age. Artists of the time not only happily indulged their sitters’ taste for such whimsy, but also photographed themselves similarly attired. Bearing in mind their seminal role in the creation of historical narrative painting and the Gothic Revival, the display ends by exploring how artists such as Sir John Everett Millais and Walter Crane literally enacted their interest in the past.
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HENRY AND CATHERINE LEFT X-ray image of the painting REUNITED showing the veil that was by Tarnya Cooper painted out. Chief Curator
DURING A RESEARCH visit to Lambeth Palace of Catherine of Aragon. This is an exciting with colleagues from the Gallery’s conservation find, as few portraits from this period survive department, we noticed an interesting portrait in good condition. In addition, when we hanging on the wall of a private sitting-room. compared the portrait to one of Henry VIII When we had a closer look at the picture we of the same date and size (NPG 4690) quickly realised it must be significant. The the similarity was striking in terms of its portrait showed a woman in costume dating composition, handling and the brocade from the 1520s or 1530s, which had previously background. It therefore seems likely that been identified as a portrait of Henry VIII’s this portrait of Catherine was once paired last wife Catherine Parr. However, the costume with a portrait of Henry of a similar type. and the facial features didn’t fit with other It is impossible to know how long the portrait known portraits of Catherine Parr, although of Catherine had been at Lambeth Palace; the likeness did resemble other portraits of intriguingly, Catherine had lived at Lambeth Henry’s first wife, Catherine of Aragon. after the death of her first husband (Henry’s brother Arthur), prior to her marriage to The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church Henry. Commissioners generously allowed the Gallery to borrow the portrait for further research and Images taken in ultraviolet light showed a technical analysis. After many months of large amount of over-paint covering the careful study we were confident that the surface of the portrait, particularly the face, portrait was a newly identified early portrait and it was evident that the painting would benefit from conservation treatment.
In consultation with Lambeth Palace and the Church Commissioners we are currently undertaking conservation work, and the painting will be on loan to the Gallery for five years. Following further research as part of the Making Art in Tudor Britain project our existing portrait of Catherine of Aragon (NPG 163) has been re-dated as an eighteenth-century copy. This loaned portrait therefore takes on a new ABOVE: ABOVE: King Henry VIII Catherine of Aragon significance, and we are delighted that it will by an unknown Anglo- by an unknown artist, c.1520 go on display in the autumn alongside the Netherlandish artist, By permission of the Archbishop portrait of Henry VIII – reuniting the couple c.1520 of Canterbury and the Church Commissioners after nearly 500 years.
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THE ART OF DRAWING: PORTRAITS BELOW FROM TOP Elizabeth (Gunning), FROM THE COLLECTION, 1670–1780 Duchess of Argyll by Clare Barlow by Francis Cotes, 1751 Assistant Curator Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton possibly after Sir Peter Lely, c.1678
FROM PRELIMINARY STUDIES to finished portraits, from introspective self-portraits to works for public display, drawings offer insight into almost every aspect of artistic practice. Yet despite this diversity, drawing has often been seen as a lesser art. Artists who worked exclusively in watercolour, ink and chalk were limited to becoming associates of the Royal Academy rather than being eligible for full membership. Only the newly-popular medium of pastel was granted the status of ‘painting’. This hierarchy has masked the importance of drawing and its growing popularity amongst artists and sitters. This display uses works from the Collection by artists such as Thomas Gainsborough, Henry Fuseli and Angelica Kauffmann to explore the different uses and growing significance of drawing as an artistic medium.
Until the seventeenth century, drawing was largely seen as a tool for training. Some continental artists and a few exceptional British practitioners were celebrated, but drawing was not commonly seen as an end in itself. However, by the mid-seventeenth century, the fashion for collecting ‘old master’ drawings amongst wealthy connoisseurs had begun to create a market for English works. This change was encouraged by Sir Peter Lely, the leading artist of his day, who supplemented his overwhelmingly successful artistic practice with chalk portrait drawings. Lely’s influence is shown in the display through the highly finished chalk portrait of Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton, by one of his followers.
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BELOW The Art of Drawing: Thomas Kerrich Portraits from the by Thomas Kerrich, 1774 Collection, 1670–1780 from 19 October 2012 until 19 May 2013 Room 16 Admission free
a sensation in 1750, pastel was a flattering and affordable choice to promote her celebrity. Gunning’s portrait also brought substantial rewards to its artist, Francis Cotes, who made several versions and also produced and sold a print of the image.
Alongside these public uses, the modest scale of drawing allowed it to flourish as a medium associated with introspection and intimacy. Amateurs and professionals used drawing to record, promote and question their own self- image. However, few artists matched the dedication of Jonathan Richardson, who reputedly spent his old age drawing himself or his son every day. From John Vanderbank’s swaggering ink sketches to Thomas Kerrich’s unusual experiment in radical foreshortening, such self-portraits offer insights into an artist’s development and creative identity.
Accomplished works such as this show the This display brings together rarely exhibited rising interest in drawing’s potential. material by some of the greatest seventeenth- and eighteenth-century artists to examine the Such interest laid the foundations for the public and private uses of drawing as it grew popularity of drawing amongst a wide range in popularity and respect. No longer dismissed of sitters in eighteenth-century Britain. as a ‘mechanical’ craft or preparatory tool, Connoisseurs might wish to display their by the end of the eighteenth century drawing erudition by commissioning their portrait in was established as a desirable medium for ink or red and black chalks, echoing the work portraiture. of Rembrandt, Van Dyck and the Renaissance masters. Others might choose to be drawn in coloured chalks or the newly popular medium Clare Barlow, Assistant Curator, will be leading a Gallery of pastel, a kind of chalky crayon. For less Tour of The Art of Drawing on Friday 23 November 2012 from 19.30. wealthy sitters, such as the impoverished Irish beauty Elizabeth Gunning, who caused
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MY SUPERHEROES HOSPITAL BELOW AND LEFT National Portrait Gallery SCHOOLS PROJECT Hospital Schools project by Othello De’ Souza- Hartley, 2011
SHORTLY AFTER it was announced in January Where the money will go 2012 that the Duchess of Cambridge had The National Portrait Gallery works with Great become our Patron, the National Portrait Ormond Street Hospital, Evelina Children’s Gallery became part of the Princes’ Charities Hospital and The Royal London, Whitechapel Forum (the group of charities linked to the to help children express themselves and learn Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince through portraiture. The My Superheroes Harry), and was offered places in this year’s project, a new scheme being launched later London Marathon. this year, will use remarkable stories from the Gallery’s Collection to inspire children of all The London 2012 Marathon took place on ages. The project will take place during school Sunday 22 April 2012, with five members of holidays, and will involve creative workshops Gallery staff (Stuart Ager, Frame Conservation led by professional artists. Manager; Nick Budden, Marketing Manager; Ross Head, Administrative Assistant, Director’s Around 1,600 children and young people Office; David Pratt, Visitor Services Assistant; will be able to participate in this two-year Rebecca Rhodes, Loans Assistant) running to programme, and the benefits will be raise funds for the My Superheroes Hospital far-reaching: when children feel acutely Schools project. The aim was to raise £3,000, dependent on medicine and treatment, and with support from family, friends, the arts act as a window into another, less colleagues and Gallery Supporters the final prescribed life. My Superheroes will also be total reached a superb £3,600. educational, supporting children’s learning during times when school attendance is not possible. For many long-term patients the Gallery hopes the project will offer a positive and deeply engaging experience separate from their illness. Siblings will also be involved in My Superheroes activities, in an effort to support the wider family through difficult times.
If you are interested in learning more about the National Portrait Gallery’s My Superheroes Hospital Schools project, and other Gallery outreach programmes, please contact Stacey Ogg, Individual Giving Manager: [email protected] / 0207 321 6644.
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REMEMBERING THE BELOW LEFT Queen Elizabeth I NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY (‘The Ditchley portrait’) IN YOUR WILL by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, c.1592
through the financial support of legacy donors include the 1620 portrait of playwright John Fletcher, and the 1850 portrait of author Charlotte Brontë by George Richmond.
Unspecified bequests are placed safely in the Gallery’s Portrait Fund, an endowment fund that was established in 2006 to provide essential funds for the acquisition of outstanding portraits and related conservation, display and research costs. The growth of the Portrait Fund is fundamental to the Gallery’s ability to continue to acquire great portraits of those who have made, and are making, a significant contribution to British history and culture.
Should you wish your gift to be directed to a particular area of the Gallery’s work, such as scholarly research, conservation or educational activities, we would be very happy to discuss this with you.
As well as providing vital support, legacies can prove extremely tax-efficient. The Gallery has full charitable status, which guarantees that ONE OF THE WAYS that you can help us ensure gifts left through Wills are not subject to that visitors in the future are able to enjoy the inheritance tax. US donors may wish to leave National Portrait Gallery, as you have, is to a legacy via the American Friends of the consider remembering the Gallery in your Will. National Portrait Gallery, a 501 (c) (3) charity. As a charity we welcome all legacies, both large and small, alongside bequests to the Collection, such as ‘The Ditchley portrait’ of Queen Elizabeth I by Marcus Gheeraerts the We will be hosting a Legacy Afternoon on Tuesday Younger, c.1592, which was bequeathed by 6 November 2012, with tours and afternoon tea. If you would like to join us, or for further information Harold Lee-Dillon, 17th Viscount Dillon, in on legacy giving, please contact Stacey Ogg, Individual 1932. Other works that have been acquired Giving Manager: [email protected] / 0207 321 6644.
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Autumn/Winter Offers for Gallery EXCLUSIVE GALLERY PUBLICATIONS OFFERS Supporters Marilyn Monroe postcard book
This new postcard book features twenty portraits of Marilyn Monroe (1926–62). Published to accompany the commemorative Gallery display, Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair, the selection includes vintage magazine covers and works by Cecil Beaton, Anthony Beauchamp, André de Dienes, Milton Green and Bob Landry.
To purchase a Marilyn Monroe postcard book at the special Gallery Supporters’ Offer price of £5.59 (a 20% discount, full price £6.99), please visit the Gallery Shops and quote ‘Face to Face Offer’ to Gallery staff.
The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart exhibition catalogue (published October 2012) Brave, handsome, clever, athletic, noble and cultured, Henry, Prince of Wales, son of James I, embodied all princely virtues, or so his contemporaries would have us believe. In his short life he was the focus of great hope and expectation in Europe, and his court was the centre of a revival of chivalry and a renaissance in the arts. This exploration of Henry’s life and image, and the extraordinary reaction to his death, transforms our understanding of this exceptional prince and the time in which he lived.
To purchase a copy of The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart exhibition catalogue at the special Gallery Supporters’ Offer price of £24 (a 20% discount, full price £30), please visit the Gallery Shops and quote ‘Face to Face Offer’ to Gallery staff.
This offer is only open to National Portrait Gallery Members, Associates and Patrons and is not available Offers subject to availability. Valid from 1 August 2012 until 31 January 2013. in conjunction with any other offer.